Tag: business

Feb 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Ports Authority plans to reclaim and sell to private investors 340 acres of land off the capital Colombo where a new port is being built next to the existing one, an official said. “It will be for residential purposes, and offices and shopping along with eco-parks,” Keppetipola said. […]

Feb 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is to start talks again on a proposed trade agreement with India that had been opposed by protectionist interests in the island, according a government decision announced after the weekly cabinet meeting. But it has been opposed by some Sri Lankan industrial and professional groups. The government is […]

Feb 11, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is expecting more than a billion US dollars in foreign direct investments in 2011 led by a booming leisure sector, after the end of a three decade war made the country more attractive, an official said. “Our expectations (for 2011) are well over a billion (US dollars),” Board […]

WASHINGTON, February 10, 2011 (AFP) – Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke fended off criticism that he is ignoring the risk of rising prices Wednesday, as he faced a hostile Republican-controlled panel in Congress. “We remain unwaveringly committed to price stability,” Bernanke told the House of Representatives budget committee, rejecting claims that rising prices for food […]

Feb 09, 2011 (LBO) – Rebuilding Sri Lanka’s irrigation infrastructure after recent record floods will cost 5. 0 billion rupees (45 million US dollars) to the tax payer, with most of the damage taken by canals, officials said. The head of Sri Lanka’s irrigation department GGA Godaliyadda said systems coming under his agency which oversees […]

Feb 08, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s central bank held key interest rates unchanged at its monthly monetary policy meeting Tuesday, saying inflation was stable and food prices likely to fall when supply returns to normal. The bank is ready to take “appropriate measures” to ward off any increase in prices of key commodity imports […]

February 8, 2011 (AFP) – The United Nations said Tuesday that recent monsoon flooding in Sri Lanka had hit hundreds of thousands of victims who were forced from their homes just weeks ago. “The impact on people of this second wave of floods is even greater than the first in large part as peoples’ capacity […]

Feb 08, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will expand its dam safety program to cover more large reservoirs and will ask for additional funding from the World Bank following recent floods, officials said. D C S Alakanda, who heads Sri Lanka’s Dam Safety and Water Resources Planning Project said the talks with World Bank to […]

Feb 07, 2011 (LBO) – A large denomination banknote issued by Sri Lanka’s monetary authority is a testament to the recent high inflation created in the country, an economist and opposition lawmaker has said. Sri Lanka’s central bank issued a 5,000 rupee note, more than twice the value of 2,000 rupee, note also issued after […]

Feb 05, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has good prospects of sustaining economic growth between 7. 0 to 8.0 percent a year if the declared economic plan is implemented, an International Monetary Fund official said. The state has now unveiled a plan to stop living beyond its means by cutting deficits, which can keep interest […]

Feb 04, 2011 (LBO) – A flexible exchange rate that moves in both directions can ward off speculative capital flows by signaling the risk of capital losses, while also improving competitiveness, an International Monetary Fund official said. Policy rates in Sri Lanka are now on a 7.0 to 8.5 percent band compared to almost zero […]